Don't Abandon the Reason You Were Born

While waiting for an appointment recently, I picked up a magazine and was drawn to the article bearing the above title. The insight offered by the author, Marilyn Meberg, were powerful. I Peter 2:9, "You are ones chosen by God,...God's instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell other of the night-and-day difference he made for you."

The author's purpose as stated in the article was to help us recognize our true reason for living so that, no matter what events come our way, we never abandon the purpose for which we were created. "When things go wrong, pessimism comes naturally." Boy do I relate to that statement. I wish it were not true about me, but it has been. Part of the problem comes from believing "that we were born to do something great, perhaps something that would change the world and make it a better place." The author examines what Scripture has to say about why we were born. WE WERE BORN TO BE LOVED BY GOD! PLAIN AND SIMPLE! Ephesians 1:4, "Long ago, even before he made the world, God loved us." Ephesians 1:11, "He chose us from the beginning, and all things happen just as he decided long ago." That does blow my mind - he loved us before he created us, before he created anything! James 1:18, "And we, out of all creation, became his choice posession." We were born for that!

"Some of you may be muttering a bit. I can hear you saying, "How can you reduce that huge question about why we were born to such a simplistic 'God created us so He could love us' answer?" I didn't reduce it, God did." The author continues, "The reason that simple answer seems to simple is because we have such and "I've got to earn love" mentality. That mentality says we can't just sit back and enjoy God's preference for us over anything in the world. We have to do something to qualify for that love." It's kind of sad that the world has so warped our view of who we are in God.

I'll close with another quote from the author, "We did not have children so they could help around the house. We had children for the express purpose of loving them and having a relationship with them. By the same token, God did not create us to help around the earth. He did not create us to do what He can already do. He created us so that He might love us and have a relationship with us. Then, based on His love, we return that love, thus establishing a reciprocal relationship. We need to understand that we don't have to do anything to earn this relationship. God ordained it "even before He made the world."

The article I read is excepted from the book, Love Me, Never Leave Me by Marilyn Meberg.